Court order

Better names might be the First Judges Club or King Bernie and the Square Table.

For 15 years, the same five judges, and more recently a sixth, have met every day Monday through Friday for lunch. At the same restaurant. At the same table. In the same chairs.

If every judge has his seat, the lunch represents 125 years of experience on the San Joaquin County Superior Court bench. And the informal setting at Yasoo Yani's restaurant, only a few steps from the courthouse door, provides a daily therapy session - minus a counselor's fee.

"We learn here from sharing our experiences," said Judge Terrence R. Van Oss, a Table of Truth regular since 1998, the first year the jurists starting breaking bread together daily.

"We learn more here than we ever did from any mandatory education. This also is the best way to relieve stress."

K. Peter Saiers, to Van Oss's right, chimed in. "We just like to shoot the s—-." He's quickly corrected by Judge Jose Alva, the newest table mate. Alva joined the group six years ago. "You mean 'shoot the bull' or 'shoot the breeze.' "

The ringleader of noontime mayhem is Judge Bernard "Bernie" Garber. He helped start the unique association, and he stubbornly insists on maintaining its familiar surroundings.

When others talked of changing locations for lunch or rotating to nearby Mexican and Chinese restaurants, Garber insisted on the predictability of Yasoo Yani's Greek fare, although he routinely orders a hamburger.

"The real reason I wanted to stay here is we had the same waitress (Shannon Roe) for the first few years," Garber says.

She has since moved on, but the judicial powerhouses have stayed. They've been served for more than a year now by 24-year-old Joseph Yturri, a Lincoln High School graduate attending San Joaquin Delta College.

The daily tab for the table (each judge pays separately): $50-$60 depending on how many show up.

Yturri has finally figured out their ordering idiosyncrasies.

"They're awesome," the waiter said. "They always want their salad first, and I make sure not to put lemon in their ice tea. They have tough jobs, but they're really good guys."

They're also irreverent, funny, mocking, thoughtful and, in their own way, idealistic.

Their favorite lunchtime activity is poking fun at one another.

Four of them served in the Army during the Vietnam War era, and each judge's military record is subject to ridicule by the others. Cuisine, cards, cars, crazy criminal cases - all are lunchtime topics.

"At work, we are right in the middle of a living soap opera," Van Oss said. "We see all the worst natural experiences in life. We come here with different stories to share."

On a recent Wednesday, the new movie "Lincoln" opened the conversation before ordering. Garber regaled his pals with the film's virtues and proceeded to tell a ribald joke from the 16th president.

He held his fellow judges in rapt attention and then proceeded to forget the punch line.

"Does that all the time," they responded in unison, laughing loudly.

While the others consumed tea, Saiers had a Budweiser. He hasn't worked since the summer of 2010 when the California Superior Court removed him from the bench for using coarse language during a trial.

The lunchtime connections have helped sustain Saiers, and his friends around the table are the first to rush to his defense.

They mutter: "He spoke the truth." "It was unfair." "Too harsh."

Saiers is reconciled to what happened. Engaging daily with his intellectual peers helps. "What I said was stupid, but I didn't deserve to be removed."

McNatt, considered the group's comedian, is missing this day because he's helping a sick brother in Hemet. And on Fridays, Judge Richard Guiliani makes periodic appearances.

The assembled judges have their moments of seriousness. Four of the six live in Stockton and worry about public safety in the city and its overall direction.

"I've seen the worst in people here - and great people," Saiers said. "Stockton is OK."

Garber put aside his characteristic humor and sarcasm.

"I've thought a lot lately about the city," he said. "Last night, I was at a Neighborhood Watch meeting where everybody was there, and they were concerned about crime.

"It showed the difference between good and bad neighborhoods. In too many areas, the attitude is that people don't want to cooperate with police or report crimes. If the gangsters feel like they can get away without impunity, they will continue to control the streets.

"It takes guts and courage to stand up in court and testify."

Alva, a member of the county Board of Supervisors in the early 1980s, finishes the how-to-fix-Stockton conversation.

"I wish I had the recipe. What we're doing is a Band-Aid on the back end. We need to figure out how to help kids before they go toward crime. Investment in youth pays off with the greatest dividends."

Too often, judges are viewed as distant and cold and uncompromising.

At the Table of Truth, they're also philosophers and thinkers and truth seekers.